Voiced dental and alveolar taps and flaps
The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental, alveolar, or postalveolar tap or flap is [ɾ].
The terms tap and flap are often used interchangeably. Peter Ladefoged proposed the distinction that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief stop, and a flap strikes the point of contact tangentially: "Flaps are most typically made by retracting the tongue tip behind the alveolar ridge and moving it forward so that it strikes the ridge in passing."[1] That distinction between the alveolar tap and flap can be written in the IPA with tap [ɾ] and flap [ɽ], the 'retroflex' symbol being used for the one that starts with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge. The distinction is noticeable in the speech of some American English speakers in distinguishing the words "potty" (tap [ɾ]) and "party" (flap [ɽ]).
For linguists who make the distinction, the coronal tap (as in Spanish pero) is transcribed as [ɾ], and the flap (as in American English ladder) is transcribed as [ᴅ], the latter of which is not recognized by the IPA. Otherwise, alveolars and dentals are typically called taps and other articulations flaps. No language contrasts a tap and a flap at the same place of articulation.
The sound is often analyzed and thus interpreted by native English-speakers as an 'R-sound' in many foreign languages. In languages for which the segment is present but not phonemic, it is often an allophone of either an alveolar stop ([t], [d], or both) or a rhotic consonant (like the alveolar trill or the alveolar approximant).
If the alveolar tap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed /r/ although that symbol technically represents the trill.
The voiced alveolar tapped fricative reported from some languages is actually a very brief voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative.
Voiced alveolar tap and flap
| Voiced alveolar tap or flap | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɾ | |||
| IPA Number | 124 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɾ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+027E | ||
| X-SAMPA | 4 | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
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Features
Features of the voiced alveolar tap or flap:
- Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact.
- Its place of articulation is dental or alveolar, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth or at the alveolar ridge. It is most often apical, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.
- Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
- It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Egyptian[2] | رجل | [ɾeɡl] | 'leg' | Contrasts with emphatic form. See Egyptian Arabic phonology |
| Lebanese | إجر | [ʔəʒəɾ] | 'wages' | ||
| Moroccan | |||||
| Armenian | Eastern[3] | րոպե | 'minute' | Contrasts with /r/ in all positions. | |
| Basque | begiratu | [beˈɣiɾaˌtu] | 'look' | Contrasts with /r/. See Basque phonology | |
| Catalan[4] | mira | [ˈmiɾə] | 'look' | Contrasts with /r/. See Catalan phonology | |
| Danish[5][6] | nordisk | [ˈnoɐ̯ɾisk] | 'Nordic' | Possible realization of intervocalic /d/ between phonetic vowels.[5][6] See Danish phonology | |
| English | Cockney[7] | better | [ˈbe̞ɾə] | 'better' | Intervocalic allophone of /t/. In free variation with [ʔ ~ tʰ ~ tˢ]. See Flapping |
| Australian[8] | [ˈbeɾə] | Intervocalic allophone of /t/, and also /d/ for some Australians. Used more often in Australia than in New Zealand. See Australian English phonology and Flapping | |||
| New Zealand[9] | [ˈbeɾɘ] | ||||
| Dublin | Intervocalic allophone of /t/ and /d/, present in many dialects. In Local Dublin it can be [ɹ] instead, unlike New and Mainstream. See English phonology and Flapping | ||||
| North America[10] | |||||
| Ulster | |||||
| West Country | |||||
| Irish | three | [θɾiː] | 'three' | Conservative accents. Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɻ ~ ʁ] in other accents. | |
| Scottish[11] | Most speakers. Others use [ɹ ~ r]. | ||||
| Older Received Pronunciation[12] | Allophone of /ɹ/ | ||||
| Scouse[11] | |||||
| South African[11] | Broad speakers. Can be [ɹ ~ r] instead | ||||
| Greek[13] | μηρός / mirós | [miˈɾ̠o̞s] | 'thigh' | Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of /r/. See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Japanese[dubious – discuss] | 心 /こころ kokoro | 'heart' | [14] Varies with [ɺ].[15] See Japanese phonology | ||
| Korean | 여름 / yeoreum | [jʌɾɯm] | 'summer' | Allophone of /l/ between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/ | |
| Māori | whare | [ɸaɾɛ] | 'house' | Sometimes trilled. | |
| Nepali[16] | रातो | [ɾät̪o] | 'red' | See Nepali phonology | |
| Portuguese[17] | prato | [ˈpɾatu] | 'dish' | Dental to retroflex allophones, varying by dialect. Contrasts only intervocalically with /ʁ/, with its guttural allophones. See Portuguese phonology | |
| Scottish Gaelic | mòr | [moːɾ] | 'big' | Both the lenited and non-initial broad form of r. Often transcribed simply as /r/. The initial unlenited broad form is a trill [rˠ], while the slender form is [ɾʲ] ([ð] in some dialects). See Scottish Gaelic phonology. | |
| Spanish[18] | caro | 'expensive' | Contrasts with /r/. See Spanish phonology | ||
| Tamil | மரம் | [maɾam] | 'tree' | See Tamil phonology | |
| Turkish[19] | ara | [ˈäɾä] | 'interval' | Intervocalically; may not make full contact elsewhere.[19] See Turkish phonology | |
| Uzbek[20] | ёмғир/yomg‘ir | [ʝɒ̜mˈʁ̟ɨɾ̪] | 'rain' | Denti-alveolar.[20] | |
| West Coast Bajau[21] | bara' | [ba.ɾaʔ] | 'to tell' | Voiced dental flap in intervocalic position. | |
Alveolar nasal tap and flap
| Alveolar nasal tap/flap | |
|---|---|
| ɾ̃ | |
| n̆ | |
| IPA Number | 124 424 |
| Encoding | |
| X-SAMPA | 4~ |
Features
Features of the alveolar nasal tap or flap:
- Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact.
- Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
- Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
- It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English[22] | Estuary | twenty | 'twenty' | Allophone of unstressed intervocalic /nt/ for some speakers, especially in rapid or casual speech. See English phonology, North American English regional phonology and Flapping | |
| North American[23] | |||||
See also
Notes
- ^ Valentin-Marquez (2015)
- ^ Watson (2002:16)
- ^ Dum-Tragut (2009:19)
- ^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:53)
- ^ a b Grønnum (2005:157)
- ^ a b Basbøll (2005:126)
- ^ Wells (1982:324–325)
- ^ Cox & Palethorpe (2007:343)
- ^ Trudgill & Hannah (2002:24)
- ^ Ogden (2009:114)
- ^ a b c Ogden (2009:92)
- ^ Wise (1957:?)
- ^ Arvaniti (2007:15–18)
- ^ Labrune (2012), p. 92.
- ^ Akamatsu (1997), p. 106.
- ^ Khatiwada, Rajesh (December 2009). "Nepali". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 373–380. doi:10.1017/S0025100309990181. ISSN 1475-3502.
- ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
- ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
- ^ a b Yavuz & Balcı (2011:25)
- ^ a b Sjoberg (1963:13)
- ^ Miller, Mark T. (2007). A Grammar of West Coast Bajau (Ph.D. thesis). University of Texas at Arlington. p. 34. hdl:10106/577.
- ^ Kwan-Young Oh. "Reanalysis of Flapping on Level Approach". Retrieved 2013-11-24.
- ^ Tomasz P. Szynalski. "Flap t FAQ". Retrieved 2013-11-24.
References
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{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
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{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Yavuz, Handan; Balcı, Ayla (2011), Turkish Phonology and Morphology (PDF), Eskişehir: Anadolu Üniversitesi, ISBN 978-975-06-0964-0[permanent dead link]
